Alvaro's Blog

Near the cottage.

Saturday August 7th
My day started at 3:50am when I woke up. I had set my alarm to 4:00am, but I woke up before it anyway. The reason I woke up so early is that I live in Tampere, but had to catch a ferry in Turku at 10:00am. The only train from Tampere to Turku that was available left Tampere around 5:55am. In order to take that train, I had to take a bus to get to the train station. As you might imagine, buses don’t run every 20 minutes in the early morning, so I had two options: one at 4:37am or one at 5:15am. I chose to take the earlier one to be safe. If I chose to take the later one, and managed to miss it (or if the bus was delayed), I would have missed the ferry (which only runs twice a week!)

The first ferry.

I managed to take a nap on the train and arrived to Turku around 7:50am. I found a hotel and went inside to have breakfast. I only had a bowl of cereal around 4, so I was getting hungry again. Around 9:30am I met with the rest of the group next to the ferry. We were a total of six people. The seventh had a bit too much fun the night before and didn’t make it on time. We didn’t find out until late in the afternoon, so some people were worried, but in the end everything was ok.

The island.

The ferry took about 5 hours to reach Utö, making only one stop in another island on the way. We first went to the cottage where we would stay to drop off our things. The cottage was on one side of the island next to one of two military controlled areas. The island used to be occupied by the military, but now everything seems to be monitored and operated remotely. We walked around the island for a while and learned about it. During 2009, there were 35 people living in Utö year round. This number grows in the summer, but it is still a small island. There is one store/post office and one café. There is also a hotel, but I didn’t go inside. The rest consists of small houses around the island, and some military installations in certain areas.

The cottage with security system (At no extra charge!)

Later in the day, we went to a tour of the light house. The lady giving the tour explained about the history of the island, the lighthouse, and a bunch of other things I don’t quite remember. After that, we cooked some food and had a great traditional Finnish dinner. Later on, some friends of one of the organizers that were working on the island came over and hung out.

Sunday August 8th
Since there were thousands of mosquitoes and other bugs around, we had to close the doors overnight. I woke up around 7:30am to some horrible heat. I eventually went outside to listen to music and read. When one of the others woke up, we walked around the island and took pictures while the rest woke up. We later had breakfast and cleaned the cottage before walking around the island again. Eventually it started raining, so we ran back to the cottage. It didn’t last very long though.

Old military watch tower.

Around 2:30pm, we took another ferry home. The one we arrived in had left earlier in the day. The second one was free, but made several stops and finished in the placed the original ferry had stopped. We then waited for a bus to arrive (by ferry) and got on to return to Turku. It was the first time I was on a bus that itself took a ferry. The bus was a bit late, so the driver went extra fast, which resulted in a very bumpy ride. Eventually we arrived to Turku after 9:00pm, where we all went our separate ways.

Monday August 9th
There were no trains or buses back to Tampere that night, so I stayed in a hostel. I woke up at 5:50 in the morning to pack up and have breakfast, before walking to the train station. Unfortunately there was a very large group of tourists that also wanted to have breakfast at 6am, so it took a while. The train left at 7:00am and I arrived to the train station at 6:50am. There was a small line at the ticket counter, but it didn’t seem to be moving, so I tried the ticket machine outside. Unfortunately it only seemed to work in Finnish or Swedish, so I had to ask someone for help. I managed to catch the train and arrived to Tampere around 8:50am. I then took a bus straight to work.

More photos from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apg88/sets/72157624562727287/

Island website: http://www.uto.fi

It has been two months since I arrived to Finland. I have two vacation days for every working month, so I decided to use them two weeks from now. I’m not really sure when I will be in this part of the world again, so I decided to take advantage of my geographical location. So where am I going?

The summer weather in Finland has been quite nice. Except for a few very warm days, I have been able to keep my apartment windows open. Most people here don’t think it is warm enough, and would very much like to travel south to have a warm summer. So what do I decide to do? As you might have expected… go north, way north.

There is an archipelago which is part of Norway called Svalbard. It is located north of the Arctic Circle, where it is nice and cold all the time. I found that there is a 5 day kayaking/camping trip in Billefjorden, so I signed up for it. I’ll be leaving Tampere on August 13th around 1am and returning the next Saturday (22nd) at 6:30pm.

This is where I’m going.

It took me quite some time to figure out how to get to Svalbard and back. I am taking a bus from Tampere to Helsinki airport around 1:45am to catch my 7:20am flight to Oslo. From Oslo I will fly to Longyearbyen (in Svalbard) with a stop in Tromsø. The kayaking trip will be from the 14-18th of August. I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing the 19th, since my flight leaves the 20th at 4:05am from Longyearbyen to Tromsø and back to Oslo. I will spend Friday and Saturday in Oslo and on Sunday morning, I will take a train to Stockholm. Finally, I will fly from Stockholm to Tampere, arriving at 6:30pm.

There are many interesting things I have read about Svalbard. For example: There are about 3,000 polar bears so they have a rule. “Anyone outside of settlements is required to carry a rifle to kill polar bears in self defense, as a last resort should they attack”. Svalbard airport in Longyearbyen is also the northernmost airport with public scheduled flights.

The main problem with this trip is that I require some winter clothes, which I left at home… I will try and borrow whatever I can from friends here and the rest I will have to buy unfortunately. Either way, I’m looking forward to the trip and will definitely write about it after I return.

July 23-25

After leaving from work on Friday, I took the train to Helsinki. After arriving, I went to drop off my backpack to the hostel where we were staying for the weekend. The hostel was in the old Olympic stadium (from the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.) We then headed back to the city center and stopped at a coffee place to wait for the rest of the group. The hostel was about 30 minutes walking from the train station, so we bought a two day public transport ticket and took a tram.

The other trainees from Tampere were coming in a later bus. They ended up meeting us in the coffee place, but soon after headed to the hostel to drop off their things. The rest of us headed to Kaivopuisto, the main park in the city, to meet with the rest of the people.

It took some time before everyone arrived, but there were more than 20 people in the park at some point. I met people from many different countries such as Serbia, Estonia, Canada, Spain, France, Portugal, and Iran, among others. We had some sandwiches and other snacks and hung out until 10 or 11pm. We then went to a place where there was a Finnish “traditional dance” music party from long ago. Most people were dressed accordingly. Unfortunately I didn’t pack any old clothes when I came to Finland. I had a lot of fun. Around 1am, some of us took the last tram back to the hostel.

On the ferry.

Since most people stayed out until who knows when, the Saturday activities were slow to start. Unfortunately I was awake quite early and had to wait until everyone was up. A few of us left early and got some breakfast before heading for the port. We took a ferry to the Suomenlinna sea fortress. We walked around for a bit and later went on a guided tour of the island. The girl giving the tour gave us a humorous story about the island. Here are a few things I learned:

Finnish soldiers had to drink liquor before battle so they would be slightly braver. Since it was hard to get clean water to the fortress, they drank beer instead. They also decided not to build a strong defense on the side of the fortress facing Helsinki, because why would anyone attack from their own land. One winter, the Russian army walked up the frozen sea and attacked just there. They won that battle. There were many other interesting facts, but I can’t remember them all.

After the tour, we went into a small building with benches and had some food. We had plans of going to another island, Seurasaari, and spending the rest of the day there. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and people did not want to be outside in the cold. We decided to head back home and meet later that night at someone’s house.

I went to the bathroom in the building and when I returned, most of the people were leaving. I realized it was time to go, so I went inside to get my stuff and pick up whatever was left behind. When I went outside again, I did not see anyone. Apparently since everyone was so cold, they were walking very fast. I spotted one person in the distance walking away, so I followed him. Unfortunately I did not walk fast enough and lost him. I took a wrong turn and was lost for a few minutes. When I finally arrived to the ferry stop, I saw it leaving. Apparently no one realized I wasn’t in the ferry…

That’s the group leaving me in the island.

I sat down to wait for the next ferry, which would arrive in half an hour. After 20 minutes or so, four other people from the group arrived to the ferry stop. They had stayed behind and gone to a museum on the island. Once we got on the ferry, I went on the deck to enjoy (what I thought was) the nice weather. The other four stayed inside. I met a guy on the deck named Osku and his friends. He’s getting married so his friends made his boss call him to work (during his vacation) and dressed him up as a German soldier. They told me what they had done so far and that they had a few more surprises left for the poor guy.

After we landed, I headed back to the hostel. The rest of the group arrived after I did since they had gone shopping after they arrived. We headed to one of the locals’ house. They had food and drinks for everyone. It was a small apartment, but we managed to fit quite a few people. Eventually we all got together and got a group photo with a Polaroid they had around.

The Photo

After a while, everyone decided to head to a night club in the city. I didn’t go in with the rest and headed home, or so I thought. I wanted to take the last tram so I wouldn’t have to walk all the way. After a few stops, there was an announcement in Finnish. Many people got off at the next stop. I had no idea what was happening, so I asked one of the people that was still on the tram what they had announced. She said that this tram was not going to follow its usual route. I got off at the next station, but was already off course. After walking for a while, I managed to find the hostel, but not before ending up at a theme park somewhere in the city.

While touring the city.

The next day several people headed home early. The rest of us walked around Helsinki for a while. I took the train home around 3:30.

A lot more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apg88/sets/72157624453727033/

June 24th

One partof the lake.

There are tons of lakes in Finland. Lake Suolijärvi is nearest to where I live. Several international students decided to have a BBQ by the lake and go swimming, so we headed over around 9pm. I don’t remember if I went swimming that time, but we go there a lot. The first time I was there was with some coworkers.

Not sure what they were doing with the grill here…

People brought their own charcoal grills along with some one-time use grills (which I had never seen before.) We went home sometime after 11pm.

There was one group of students from Mexico.

May 29th and 30th

I didn’t do much my first weekend in Tampere. I purchased basic things like cleaning and kitchen supplies, along with bed sheets and a towel. I also bought a SIM card for my cell phone. One interesting thing I noticed is that in the shopping place in Hervanta, where I live, there are three different supermarkets right next to each other. All two are comparable in price and product selection (K Supermarket and S Market) with one budget place (Lidl). I still can’t understand why three different supermarkets are within a 30 second walk within the same building…

May 31st

I was not sure if I started working on Monday or Tuesday, so I decided to go to the university around 9am. I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to go, so I found the information center and ask where a certain professor had his office. He was the only person I knew about. When I arrived to his office, I saw a note that he was on vacation and would be back the next day. I wasn’t going to let the day go to waste, so I knocked on office doors next to his until someone knew about me. Two researchers knew I was working on their project and showed me around the university.

One other interesting thing I noticed was how early people have lunch at the university. My colleagues and I went at 10:30am! After that, I filled out some more papers and went to the bank to open an account so I could get paid. I also went downtown to get myself a bus card, so I don’t have to pay €2.50 for every bus ride. With the card, which is pre-loaded with cash, it only cost me €1.10 since I am under 25 years old.

I had talked with my co-workers about going orienteering in the afternoon, so I changed clothes at home and walked back to the university. After driving for a while, we parked and each bought our own map. I decided to do the 5km route, since I did not have a compass and was following a co-worker. The other one was doing the 7km… The route was in the forest, which is much thicker than I expected, and filled with mosquitoes and mud. I had a great time! I just wish I had pants, instead of shorts, and a long sleeve shirt to avoid the mosquito bites.

June 1st-5th
The rest of the week was not as eventful as Monday. I met with the two Finnish girls that are organizing events and helping foreign trainees out for the summer. They were really nice and the other trainee (A girl from Austria) and myself around the city center. On Friday we went walking around Pyynikki, which is a sort of park area near one of the lakes. It has a sort of tower in the middle, which we went up and looked around. We also had some sort of local pastries which were really good.

On Saturday, I went walking around the local public market and found a few shopping centers in the city center. I also found one of the movie theaters and watch the movie Harry Brown, which I enjoyed.

Photo of part of the city from the top of the tower at Pyynikki.

Wednesday May 26th

My trip began in Rochester, NY. I woke up early and finished packing. My housemate drove me to the airport early to catch my 10am flight. I arrived to JFK airport in NYC around 11:30am. I had lunch and found one of the charging stations to plug in my laptop while I waited until my 5:40pm flight. Even though there was no one seating next to me, I did not sleep much at all in the airplane.

The last bus and 777 in the background.

May 27th

The flight arrived around 4:30am in London, ahead of schedule. After we landed, we were notified that the jetbridge was not working and we would have to take buses from the airplane to the terminal. I was in the rear of the Boeing 777, so it was quite a while before I got off the plane.

A friend of mine was taking the train from Cambridge in order to meet me in London. I took the Heathrow Express train from the airport to downtown London. My friend texted me instructions as to which subway station to go to, but it took me a while to figure it out. I did not take into account that it was rush hour since for me it was midnight. The stations were packed with people. I finally arrived to the destination and met my friend outside.

We walked around London for a bit, then sat down at a coffee shop for maybe two hours. We were both really tired, and didn’t feel like doing anything. After that, we walked around some more until I had to head back to the airport to catch my 4:10pm flight. I had lunch in some very crowded airport restaurant and headed to the gate.

I finally managed to sleep during the flight to Helsinki. We landed in Helsinki around 9:30pm. After getting my luggage and going through customs, I had to get a bus downtown. A friend who lives in Helsinki told me which bus to take.

I ran into some trouble when the bus ticket machine did not take my credit card. It also did not take bills, which are all I had, so I went to the help place at the airport to see if I could buy my ticket there. I couldn’t. What I did do is change euro bills for coins, and then bought my ticket using the original ticket machine. After a while, my friend met me in near the bus station and we went to a local pub. He was nice enough to let me stay in his flat in Espoo so I could take the train to Tampere (where I am now working) the next day.

Near Aalto University

May 28th

The next morning, my friend headed to work at the Aalto University in Helsinki. While he was there, I walked around the area, took a few pictures, and headed back. I had lunch with him and his colleagues at the university and took a bus to the Helsinki train station. Since my train didn’t leave until later in the day, I decided to watch Prince of Persia at the local movie theatre.

As it is common here in Europe, you select the seats when purchasing the tickets. It was pretty empty since it was Friday around 2pm, so I selected a good seat in the center of the theatre. The theatre was extremely large, and there were only 30 people or so watching the movie. The funny thing is that we were all within a few rows and sitting next to each other, which is something that rarely happens back home. Only after the movie starts do people move around, but in this case I ended up sitting next to a stranger or two.

After the movie, I headed to the train station. My train ticket was all in Finnish, but I managed to figure out which train car I was in. I sat down and noticed the train was pretty empty. During the first stop, several people got in and one woman sat next to me. I was confused, since there were lots of empty seats. I didn’t realize the tickets had assigned seats until much later…

I arrived to Tampere around 7pm. The guy I’m subleasing my apartment from told me to take a bus to the university, where he would meet me and take me to the apartment. As usual, I missed the stop where I was supposed to get off and ended up taking longer than usual. Well, I didn’t know which stop to get off. I was told to take the bus to Hervanta (which I thought was a stop name, not a suburb). Eventually I made it to the university and met with the guy. He showed me the apartment and where the grocery store was. I managed to buy some food before they closed and headed back home.